Leader: Government IT leaders on verge of new era

The race for the post of CIO of a merged Inland Revenue and Customs & Excise began this week in what is turning out to be a pivotal year for government IT in terms of a new generation of strategic leaders being appointed and major contracts awarded.

The incoming CIO is expected to be appointed within the next three months and will immediately be faced with the logistics of integrating the IT systems and suppliers of the two departments. The winning bidder of the Revenue's £3bn Aspire contract, Cap Gemini, is also due to officially take over from EDS in the summer.

One person who won't be in the running is current Revenue IT chief John Yard, who revealed to silicon.com this week that he is stepping down in July to set up his own outsourcing consultancy.

Key changes are also being made all over government that will impact on the future success of major modernisation programmes. NHS IT director general Richard Granger has just appointed a sidekick in Professor Aidan Halligan to help execute the delivery of the billions of pounds of IT contracts that have just been awarded.

Over at the Office of Government Commerce, Sir Peter Gershon, who has overhauled public sector IT procurement procedures, has just handed over the reigns to his deputy John Oughton. The hunt for a government-wide CIO is also underway to replace the e-Envoy and oversee the next phase of e-government past the 2005 deadline of getting services online.

It now looks certain that biometric ID cards will be given the official go ahead later this year, triggering the bidding process for another massive, and no doubt costly, high-profile government IT project.

The emphasis on this next phase of modernising government is all about delivery. The likes of Richard Granger and John Yard have shown that it is possible to conduct successful competitive bidding processes and get best value for the taxpayer from IT suppliers but there is still a lot of hard work and, no doubt, a few tears and tantrums ahead yet.

Ultimately, whoever is chosen it is absolutely vital that they are given the power and influence to whip luddite bureaucrats into shape and bring under-performing IT vendors to task and ensure there are no repeats of the government IT failures that have blighted the last decade.